Gimme The Grains.
- Saydee Longhurst
- Aug 31, 2020
- 2 min read
The air is starting to be cooler. The days shorter. The sky hazy. And if you happen to be like me your allergies are 'haywire'. It's Harvest Time.
My dad cutting a crop of hard white wheat.
Go ahead and cue the Luke Bryan and bask in the nostalgia of combines cutting in staggered lines and working til the job gets done. I always love the line in Florida Georgia Line's song, 'may we all get to see those fields of green turn gold' and I couldn't agree more. The progress of grain fields is easy to see and very satisfying. Hopefully you have noticed the amber waves of grain as they turned from vivid green to honey gold. I always want to go lay on it because it looks like an inviting bed of warmth but then I remember the time I jumped in the back of my dad's semi truck loaded with freshly harvested wheat kernels and the memory of scratchy hives and an itchy throat helps me to just admire the crop from afar.
This week I wanted to address some interesting facts regarding grain and specifically grain grown in the state of Idaho. The United States Department of Agriculture aka the USDA has some awesome data about grain grown in other states if you are interested in browsing it.
I will include the link here:
Hard white wheat.
The Idaho State Department of Agriculture aka the ISDA has a super informative web page regarding a wide range of crops grown in the state but I just want to focus on wheat this week. Here is the paragraph direct from the site:
Wheat is a very important and historic crop in Idaho. Nearly half of all Idaho wheat is sold to foreign markets, making it one of our top export products. Idaho is one of a few places in the world that successfully produces all five classes of wheat. (the USDA recognizes 8 classes of wheat) Over half of the total wheat crop in Idaho is soft white wheat. Idaho wheat farmers have some of the highest yields per acre. In terms of revenue generated, wheat has consistently ranked as Idaho’s second largest crop behind potatoes. Idaho also is the largest grower of hard white wheat in the U.S.
It does a much better job of pointing out the facts and staying concise then I ever could! I am also going to include a video of grain harvest in Idaho. Fair warning the music is DRAMATIC but I loved the footage it captured. I would suggest picking your own audio song while watching. I named a few in the first paragraph (feel free to use).
To finish I want to leave you with this article from the Bingham News Chronicle, a local paper covering Aberdeen to Shelley. The author interviewed several farmers from around the area as well as University of Idaho Extension cereals pathologist, Juliet Marshall. She provides some perspective on how weather patterns have had an effect on grain crops across the state.
I will provide the link to the article here:
As always, thank you for reading.
*tips ball cap from the tractor seat*
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